NCSA Blog

5 Star, 4 Star, No Star, What does it all mean?  It can mean a lot in the recruiting world or it can mean nothing at all.  Highly ranked players often end up with many scholarship offers early in the process, but under the radar recruits still have their place with major college programs.  Penn State opened their football season with an impressive victory on Saturday.  The media likes to focus on team captain Derrick Williams the former #1 recruit in America, but his counterparts Deon Butler and Jordan Norwood also contributed heavily in the Penn State victory.  The Morning Call.com examined the performance of their wide receivers and their vastly different recruiting stories.  

This is not to suggest that Penn State shouldn’t chase everybody’s All-Americans, or that smart recruiting is conducted only on the fringes. Over the summer, quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno took a glancing blow at the recruiting services, saying, ”There are a lot of great football players that Rivals and Scout don’t know about.” True, but there are even more whom they do know about — and who don’t end up at Penn State.

So, what does this have to do with recruiting? Remember, both were overlooked in high school. Butler was a preferred walk-on, and Norwood might have been known better as a basketball player at State College High. In fact, that’s why Paterno offered him a scholarship in the first place.”I’ll take credit for Jordan Norwood,” the head coach said Saturday. ”I’m serious about that.”

”Recruits complain all the time about where they’re rated on these Web sites,” Jay Paterno said this past summer. ”It’s like, Why do you care? Get to your schools, prove everybody wrong.”’

Many times the only thing separating a recruit with a 5 star rating from a no star rating is a little exposure.  I suggest recruits work to get their name out early and often so they don’t end up as walk-ons a.k.a long shots.

Character matters in recruiting.  Virtually every college coach you talk to will tell you that he tries his best to do a thorough background check on every incoming recruit.  Athletes need to understand that the search doesn’t just end with talking to your parents, coaches, and teachers.  These days that search extends to the Internet on site likes Facebook and MySpace.  Want proof?  Both the University of Nebraska and Creighton University recently released Interent Ethics Codes.

Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne told the press that the athletic department will be monitoring more than 500 Nebraska athletes this fall. 

Osborne bluntly stated, “We wont turn our heads if we see something inappropriate.”

Creighton athletic director Bruce Rasmussen echoed the statement. 

“If, in my opinion, I see anything that affects them, the team, the athletic department or the university in negative ways, I’ll handle it any way I see fit.”

College coaches have limited scholarships available and their jobs are on the line if they can’t produce results.  Losing players to suspension is a major blow to any program.  Coaches will continue to monitor their athletes with any tool possible.  Recruits need to realize that the same type of scrutiny will fall on them.  Don’t throw away a potential scholarship by posting a “funny” picture on the Internet that can come back to haunt you.

by Chris Krause, NCSA Founder and President

There is something that sets a few select athletes apart from their competition in the eyes of college coaches.

What that “something” is might surprise you.

It isn’t anything that happens during competition.  It’s not something that happens during practice, or even in the classroom.

It’s what happens during a crucial part of the recruiting process, when a coach can finally get the chance to talk one-on-one with the prospect they are interested in after reviewing their academic and athletic credentials.  It’s what happens during a phone call from a college coach to a high school student-athlete.

What happens, most of the time, is a lack of good communication on the part of the student-athlete prospect that is getting a call from the college coach.  Most athletes give simple “yes” and “no” answers.  They mumble.  They don’t give coaches the information they are searching for in the phone call, and it frustrates those college recruiters.

You see, when a college coach gets to the point of calling a high school prospect, something pretty significant has just happened: That athlete has jumped ahead of the pack of other prospects on a coach’s list, and are now being called to see if they would be a good fit for that coach and his or her program.

Most prospects on a coach’s recruiting list do not get called.  Those that do hear from a coach have a unique opportunity to really stand out from the crowd, and accelerate their chances of getting an offer from a coach.

However, when that prospect doesn’t communicate effectively with a college coach that is calling them, it may cause the coach to reconsider whether or not that prospect would be a good fit for their program.  It’s one of the most frustrating aspects of recruiting, and it seems to be getting worse.  In the age of e-mail and text messaging, and the general use of computers by teens to communicate with other teens, coaches are noticing that it’s getting harder and harder to have really good, really in-depth conversations with their prospects.

That’s where the opportunity exists for prospects who want to get an edge over their competition for athletic scholarships.  If you can talk to a coach, carry on a conversation, and communicate effectively, you will stand-out from your competition in the mind of that coach.

If you are the prospect who gives them the information that they’re looking for, you will be the prospect that they are more likely to pursue because they are able to learn about you as a person, and not just as an athlete.

Do you want to be one of those prospects who knows how to talk effectively with a college coach?  Here are my tips for communicating with college coaches:

Return their messages.  If they leave a message on your voicemail or message machine, it’s vital that you call them back immediately.  Even if it’s late at night, call back and leave a message.  Let them know that you received their message, and that you are interested in talking to them.

Be persistent.  You will see that many coaches are pretty persistent when it comes to getting your attention and trying to convince you to come play for their program.  Take a page from their playbook, and make sure you are persistent in getting back in touch with a coach who has tried to call you.  Don’t give up after just one return call.  Call again, follow-up with an e-mail, and then do all over again in a day or two if you haven’t heard back from them yet.

Tell them when you can spend time talking.  Let them know when the best time to talk is, and what your daily schedule looks like.  Most prospects don’t do that, and it frustrates coaches. 

Speak clearly, and use your best grammar.  Don’t mumble or slur your words.  How you talk to your friends at school might not be the best way to talk to a college coach who is thinking about paying for your college education.  Try to impress a coach with how you speak.

Show respect.  Address them as “Coach Smith”, or “sir”, or “Ms. Jones”.  Until you have an established relationship with that coach, show him or her respect in how you address them.  It sounds like a small detail, but it can make a really positive impression in a coach’s mind.

Ask questions.  You should have a list of “ready to ask” questions that you would want to discuss with a coach.  They might be questions about playing time, the majors their school offers, or dormitory options on campus.  I recommend that you write down a few good questions and refer to that list when you hear from a college coach.

Answer questions with a lot of details and information.  Remember, do not give them short “yes” or “no” answers.  Go into a lot of detail.  Give them more than they are looking for in terms of information on a particular topic.  The more you talk to them, the more excited they’ll be about the idea of you coming to play for them.

Write them a thank you note right away.  Send a quick e-mail and let them know that you really enjoyed the conversation.  Then, do this:  Ask the coach what the next step in the process is.  If you do that, they will tell you.  And, you won’t be left wondering if you’re going to get recruited by that coach or not.

Do you see how important good communication on your part is?  Do you understand how rare it is these days that a college coach comes across a student-athlete who communicates effectively during the recruiting process?

If you commit to doing this, I promise that you will not be disappointed.  Coaches will notice your approach, and put you at the top of their call list.

Forbes magazine sat down with their proclaimed “Sports’ Most Powerful Coach,” and he offered a line that hammers home one of NCSA’s core beliefs:

When he visits a recruit, he says, “I tell them this is a 40-year decision, not a 4-year one.” He stresses the importance of his players’ being successful as people, as students and as athletes. Queen Marvin, the mother of Julio Jones, says: “He came in here and talked about education. That’s what I want for my son. Football won’t always be there.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves…

 Creating mismatches is what good X and O coaching is all about.  At NCSA we try to help potential recruits to create their own mismatches.  What is a mismatch in recruiting?  It’s an athlete with options.  The more offers from different schools the more likely that scholarship dollars will increase and the athlete will find the right school fit.  Why?  Because schools don’t want to lose out to their rivals.

I am always stunned when I talk to athletes that draw a 2 state buffer around their hometown and refuse to consider any further schools.  Talk about decreasing your options!

Only a few years ago coaches usually took the majority of their recruits from inside their state borders.  That has drastically changed.  Right now the Wisconsin Badger 2009 recruiting class has only 4 in state commits as opposed to 12 out-of-staters.

If coaches are willing to look further out, then recruits should take advantage and do the same.  By using technology like NCSA’s Scouting Report athletes can easily promote themselves across the country.  If you want to maximize your options, I suggest getting started today.

After watching the priceless JoePa clip you may realize that it might be a good idea to investigate your college decision a little further.  I often preach getting started early to maximize your options, but you also get know a program much better by starting early.  Think about it like buying a car.  Do you want to buy from the shady used car salesman or the family friend you have know for years?

 By starting the recruiting process early you get a chance to build solid relationship rather than just getting “the pitch.”  This decison will affect the rest of your life, so it might be worth your time to get going early.

Among the many reasons to enter the college sports recruiting process earning an athletic scholarship to pay for college is always at the top of the list. Playing in college offsets the burden of paying for college. After all, who wants to be paying for college 10 years after they graduate because of student loans? In May 2007, testimony before US congress revealed that a quarter of all students graduate with too much debt to pay back on a starting teachers salary. That is way too high.

If that’s the case, shouldn’t you be knowledgeable in the ways of Financial Aid?

I earned my MBA from one of the top business schools in the country and traded sophisticated financial instruments for over 20 years. I thought I could figure this financial aid thing out. I couldn’t. I needed help. I’m very glad I invested in professional advice that helped maximize the grants and scholarships my daughter received. One of the great things about NCSA is that their advice on how to maximize scholarship dollars actually works. And it continues to work. Except for the less than 1% of college athletes who have “full rides” (tuition, books, room & board, fees, transportation), most families must negotiate their financial aid package on an annual basis. Paying for that expert advice helped - a lot! As she enters her junior year, my daughter has received over $135,000 in financial aid. Not one penny of that is a student loan. It’s all grants that don’t have to be paid back. Do you think I’m happy with the professional advice I received? My return on that investment was over 6700.00 per cent!

Do you think the college athletic recruiting process should provide you with the highest number of opportunities? Do you think understanding college athletics recruiting can reveal the perfect college fit for you? How do you go about increasing your opportunities? What system should you employ to make sure you are selecting the right opportunity for you?

College coaches begin by initially contacting 1,000 or 2,000 or even 10,000 (depending on the sport) student athletes by sending them camp brochures, emails, questionnaires, etc. Those same college coaches are clearly not recruiting all of those student-athletes. Why do they start with such a large pool? They are following the advice of Marketing 101: the more kids who they find out about, the better chance they’ll find the really quality student-athlete who will help their program. If that’s a good strategy for college coaches, shouldn’t a student-athlete use the same strategy? Doing so will increase your number of opportunities.

A savvy student-athlete will learn as early as freshman year that they need to develop trust-based relationships with college coaches. This can only happen through communication. Since the NCAA restricts the amount and timing of contacts initiated by college coaches, the student-athlete must be proactive. Unfortunately, the 14 or 15 year old student-athlete doesn’t have the life experiences or the maturity to begin building relationships with adults. The good news is they can be trained in that skill set. It’s like interviewing for a job. 

College recruiting boils down to trust-based relationships between college coaches and student-athletes. What college coach is going to make a significant investment in a student-athlete unless they know a lot more about that student-athlete than her/his performance on the playing field?

If you agree with playing the numbers game and building trust-based relationships with college coaches, have you thought about how you would do that? If you’re a student-athlete reading this, do you think your parents can do this for you? If so, you better forget about playing sports in college. Do you think your coach can do this for you? Again, if so, you better forget about finding the perfect college fit for you. You are the one that needs to take charge. You can only do that if you develop the skill set to do so. Who will teach you that?

Finally, if you do all of the above correctly, how do you determine the right fit? There are many different factors including: academic quality of the school, size of school, location of school, financial aid package, level of competition, opportunity to play early, getting along with the coaching staff and players, receiving tutoring help (if necessary), etc. There is a way to logically sort out all of those factors. If you need help, go here.

Last weekend NCSA held our annual National University drawing all of our scouts, coaches and several big names in sports to Chicago to discuss the current state of recruiting and how we will continue to shape its future.  I had the chance to discuss recruiting with several big names including one of the original pioneers on the professional side of recruiting, Tom Lemming.  Tom has known NCSA since its beginning.

“Chris Krause (NCSA Founder) was in my magazine as a high school senior and I’ve known him his whole professional life as one of the most sincere people I’ve ever met. He really goes against the adage nice guys finish last.  As far as football the company has has become the first stop for coaches and should be for prospects.”

 He saw the biggest change in the speed of the recruiting process.

“The process has been hurried up so much where colleges are actually recruiting juniors ahead of time when they are sophomores and freshman.  It’s something that really changed with Penn St in 94 but last year it hit the whole nation.”

“The Internet gets the word out quicker.  It also allowed for many more analysts and false information, but quicker information.”

If he had a son currently going through the process he would advise him based on this new reality.

“I would get involved and I would get his coach involved.  I would start promoting him after his sophomore year.  Take him to select camps but use any facility I can to make them aware of his existence and abilities.  I find there a lot players that wait too long.”

Finally he hit on how grades are playing more and more of a role.

“The change from 14 to 16 core courses means you need to start as a freshman.  Grades will continue to play more and more of a role in deciding how scholarships are handed out.”

Athletics can be an avenue to academic success. I detailed this trend in an earlier post, but today Rivals.com featured how one program is using its academic prestige and some new policies to get top notch recruits in the door.

Coach Jim Harbough has led a turnaround at Stanford by identifying and signing talented players that also get it done in the classroom. This wouldn’t be possible without the cooperation of the Stanford admissions department. Below are some great quotes from Levine Toilolo and Shayne Skov, two committed athletes, describing the transformation:

“I was glad they offered me that quickly,” said Toilolo, who was offered during September of his junior year. “I guess Shayne was the first to be offered for our class and to commit, but they were able to offer me at the beginning of my junior year - right around the same time Florida and others did - and that made a big difference. I wanted to decide early if I could, and I’m not even accepted through admissions yet. But I was able to commit because I had the offer.”

Still, a written offer from Stanford is not like a written offer from other programs.

“You still have to get through admissions,” Toilolo said. “That’s why a lot of the guys we are recruiting haven’t committed yet. They want to complete the application process and get admitted before they commit. It’s a big disadvantage for Stanford, I would guess, but I hear it’s better than it was in the past.”

Toilolo goes to the same high school as former USC star Reggie Bush. In fact, his older brother played with Bush. He and Skov have heard the rumors about Bush’s interest in Stanford.

“He wanted to go to Stanford I hear, but he fell just short of admissions. At least that’s how the story goes,” Skov said. “Can you imagine what a difference he would have made to that program? That shows you how hard it is to recruit top players to Stanford because of the admissions situation. But Coach Harbaugh doesn’t make it feel intimidating at all.”

The academic restrictions remain an obstacle. Skov and Toilolo said that in addition to the normal application required at every school, Stanford football recruits have to write four essays. Three are around 600 words, and the other is longer.

“I was recruited by a lot of schools and some good academic schools, but that extra stipulation was never mentioned,” Skov said. “Maybe other schools have it, maybe they don’t. But I know we have to do it to get into Stanford.

“But if academics are important to you, why not? Where else can I play Southern Cal on a Saturday and then study with a Nobel Prize winner on a Monday?”

The lesson the two recruits describe is simple; They separated themselves from their peers by taking things seriously in the classroom. If you are a recruit with dreams of playing at a prestigious university you MUST get things done in the class room. The bottom line is that the better your grades the more scholarship opportunities that will be available.